


The Promise

by Ophelia_j



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 02:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20250496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ophelia_j/pseuds/Ophelia_j
Summary: Sam Carter made herself a promise, and now the chance has come, she's determined to keep it.





	The Promise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [missrainbowpie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/missrainbowpie/gifts).

> Some Sam/Jack fluff for @MissRainbowPie, who made me so welcome on Twitter.

Sam Carter strode through the corridors of the SGC with single minded purpose. This was it. The moment had arrived. She’d promised herself, that if a chance like this came, she would take it. Their job was too perilous, and their lives potentially too short, to do otherwise. So this was the moment. Right now. Or at least, in seven minutes. She reached her destination, took a breath, and knocked on the door.

O’Neill’s voice said, ‘Come in, but I’m off duty, so this had better be good.’

She pushed the door.

Her commanding officer was lying on the bed in the centre of his room. They all had the same tiny space, woefully inadequate though it was, the excuse being that these rooms were only for emergency situations, when the job meant that there was little opportunity to go to their respective homes outside the base. Which, for SG-1, was almost all of the time. And most of the rest of time, they stayed on base anyway, because, for them, this was home. Where their family was. So she wasn’t surprised in the slightest to find him here, reading a fishing manual, head propped on one hand, dressed in a green military issue t-shirt and khaki trousers, the closest he generally got to casual dress on base.

He looked up, cracked a smile. ‘Hey, Carter.’

She stepped all the way into the room, and closed the door behind her. He raised an eyebrow and swung his legs off the bed, giving her room to sit if she wanted.

She hovered by the door, suddenly convinced this had been a really bad idea. Nevertheless, she had promised herself, so, ‘Hi.’ The word Colonel hovered on the edge of her tongue and she forced herself to say, ‘Jack.’

He cocked his head at her. ‘Hi. He imitated her pause. ‘Sam.’

She cleared her throat. ‘There was something I wanted to – ask you. A – A proposition. Of sorts.’

He grinned then, teasing her. ‘Samantha Carter is propositioning me. All my Christmases have come at once.’

She gave him a weak smile. ‘Well, sort of, sir, actually. Jack, I mean. Yes.’

The smile slid from his face. ‘Carter, that was a joke. Not a good one, I admit, and yes, probably not one I’d’ve made to Teal’c, so if you want to write me up or something – ‘

She waved a hand at him. ‘Could you just - not talk? For a minute. Whilst I get this out?’

He nodded, watching her face, and frowning in concern.

‘Okay. The mission today. The time displacement technology. We all – SG-1 – were put in a series of repeating time loops. So time would pass, then we’d go back to the start of the loop and live that time again, only we’d remember both times. Then, time would run normally again until the next loop. Then same again. But everyone else only remembered the second loop, because that’s the only one they lived. But we lived them both. Daniel and I theorised that it was a high tech way of that civilisation running tests of high risk items – drugs, technology, etcetera, because if it went wrong, just hit the button and bam. Start again.’

‘May I speak?’

‘What? Oh yes. Sorry.’

‘I know this Sam. I was _there_. I had to live through you and Daniel explaining how it worked. _Twice_.’

‘Yes, sir. Jack. I know that. And you also know that it was faulty somehow, we were hit accidentally, so that we kept looping without meaning to. But fortunately, it’s wearing off now, so the loops are getting further apart, and shorter.’

‘Yes, Carter, and by tomorrow it’ll have worn off completely. Again, you told me this earlier.’

‘Yes, sir, I know. It’s just,’ she looked at her watch. ‘There’s a loop coming up.’

He stared at her. ‘I _know_, Carter.’ He held up his book. ‘I’m not going mad with my twenty extra minutes. Bonus reading time only, see.’

‘Yes, I see that, sir. Very entertaining. The thing is, I was thinking. The only people who know what happens on the first loop are those that live it. For everyone else, time flows in a complete linear fashion through the second loop, you see?’

‘Yes, Carter, again, you explained this today. At some length, you may recall.’

‘Yes.’ Sam took a calming breath. ‘Yes, I did. But I don’t think you’re really grasping what I’m saying here, Jack.’

He sighed in turn, set down his book, and waved a hand. ‘Then by all means, _Sam_, explain further.’

‘I’m saying that we could do anything on this loop, and if anyone asked us later, we’d be able to deny it absolutely plausibly because in the reality that will play out, _it didn’t happen_.’ She looked at him in triumph.

He squinted at her. ‘Carter, is this your way of asking me if I want to rob a bank with you? Because I’m not saying that doesn’t sound like fun and all, but you’re asking a lot of twenty minutes.‘

‘No, sir.’ Abruptly, she crossed the small room, and sat beside him, and he shuffled up a little to give her more room. He was still watching her curiously. After a moment, she said, ‘Do you remember those armbands Anise gave us?’

He pulled a face. ‘How could I forget? It was fun whilst it lasted.’

She said, ‘Do you remember what happened on the mothership? When I lost mine.’

He swallowed, looked away, said bluntly, ‘Yep. Kind of hard to forget.’

She said quietly, ‘Thing is, sir, I thought that might be it. I thought that might be the last time I would ever see you.’

‘Wouldn’t have happened Carter,’ he spoke over her, fiercely, ‘If that C4 hadn’t blown, I’d’ve found a way, we – ‘

She touched his hand lightly, and said, ‘I know. It’s okay. But – ‘ she broke off, bit her lip, and he was watching her seriously now, eyes intense, all bonhomie fallen away.

She screwed up her courage, and carried on. ‘Standing there, looking at you, thinking I was going to die, there was lots of things I should have been thinking, but right then all I could focus on was, I wish - I’d kissed him. I wish we’d – just once. And I promised myself, if by some miracle we got out, and a chance came again, a way to have that – even just once - without compromising our roles, or our work, or our friendship, or anything, that I’d at least have the guts to ask.’ She licked her lips, which were suddenly dry as the Arizona desert, and finished, ‘So, that was what I wanted to ask. If in the first loop, you wanted to, you know, you’d mind if, I kissed you. At all.’

O’Neill stared at her for a long moment, then took a deep breath, and ran a hand across his face. ‘Jesus H. Christ, Carter.’

She felt her heart sink, and said, uncertainly, ‘Oh God, Jack, sir, if I’ve read this wrong, I’m- I’m so sorry. I don’t ever want anything to jeopardise our working relationship, or our friendship, or the team or – look I’m really sorry, just forget I ever – ‘

He held up a hand. ‘Just stop talking for a second, okay?’

She nodded.

He said, ‘We’d remember, right?’

She nodded.

He looked away for second, and huffed a laugh. ‘You know, a big part of me wants to say, actually Carter, that’s not a bad idea, we both know there’s always been’ – he gestured between them – ‘something. Let’s make out, let’s get it out of our systems, right?’

She nodded uncertainly.

He rolled his eyes. ‘_No_, Sam, Jesus!’

He stood and paced the small space. ‘You think it’s just about deniability? You think twenty minutes of – of making out with you is going to get you out of my system? It wouldn’t _start_, Carter. It wouldn’t even _touch the sides_. It’d just make it so much worse – I’d _remember_ it. In briefings, on missions, there’d be a moment, and I’d see you, and I’d want it. More. The whole – all of it. You. Not for twenty damn minutes. For always.’

She stared at him, eyes blown wide. He dropped back beside her. ‘Oh Christ.’ He put his head in his hands. ‘Please tell me the loop has started and we can forget I said that.’

She checked her watch, said shakily, ‘Ninety seconds to go.’

‘Ah, shit.’

They sat in silence, watching the hands on Jack’s travel clock tick relentlessly, and achingly slowly, forward. With thirty seconds to go, Sam said, ‘I should probably – ‘ she stood up. Moved to the door. He made no move to stop her. The time ticked on. She put her hand on the door handle, made to turn it, then the odd internal shimmer that marked the start of the loop ran through her system.

She heard Jack say, quietly, ‘Sam.’

She turned. He said, ‘I – I think I was wrong. What I said about – making things worse. I think that ship might’ve sailed already.’

She said, ‘Is there anything we could do in the next twenty minutes that might change that?’

‘You could shoot me in the gut with a handgun. I think I’d be a bit pissed off. Or use that goa'uld wrist thing on me, and mess with my head.’ He paused. ‘Although I’d probably get over it. So: no.’

She said, ‘Right.’ She spread her hands, ‘No gun. No – ‘wrist thing’.’ With her free hand, she reached behind her, out of his sight, and engaged the privacy lock on the door. At the click, he met her eyes, then looked at the clock. Nineteen and a half minutes.

He looked back at her, then down at the floor at his feet. ‘Sam, I'm your – ‘ He heard her cross the floor, and the bed next to him dipped. His voice dried in this throat. Her hand crossed his vision and touched his cheek, then his face was being turned to hers, and she was very close, and just _stunningly_ beautiful, and so goddamn _smart_, and what in the _name of god_ was this woman doing with him? But before he could voice a single thought, she’d brought up her other hand, drawn his face to hers, and was kissing him. And kissing him. And _kissing_ him. And apparently, Samantha Carter kissed like she did everything else: thoroughly, with certainty, and very, very fucking well.

After a minute where Jack was mildly concerned he might die of asphyxiation, and entirely sure that there were worse ways to go, she draw back and looked at him, and he stared back in slightly delirious shock.

She bit her lip, glanced at the clock, and said, a little shyly, ‘Eighteen minutes to go. Did you want to -?’

‘Yes.’

‘You don’t know what I was about to say.’

‘Doesn’t matter. All your ideas are incredible.’

She made a sound that was almost a giggle, and Jack immediately filed it under, ‘Noises Carter makes that I want to hear every day until I die.’

She said, suddenly, heartbreakingly earnest, and so close he could feel her warm breath on his face, ‘You know that – I think you’re incredible too, right?’ He made to speak and she put her hand over his mouth, ‘Don’t. Don’t brush it off. Let me have this.’

He stared at her, eyes wide over her hand, then, very gently, kissed her palm.

She said, ‘_Jack_.’ Then, brokenly: ‘Oh god, you were right, this is making it worse.’

He glanced quickly to the side. ‘Seventeen minutes. You really want to talk?’

He caught her gaze again, and saw the exact moment she decided. Her eyes went from uncertain to fierce in a heartbeat, and if he hadn’t already been head over heels for her, that would have been the moment he was lost.

She said, ‘No.’ And surged forward, kissing him again whilst pushing him backwards onto the bed and any reservations Jack might have had about this idea vanished at the feel of her against him, as he brought his arms around her, and pulled her to him, vowing to make every second count.

Sixteen minutes later, Jack was forcing himself not to look at the clock that he was starting to hate with all of his being. Sam was a warm, wonderful weight at his side, cuddled against him. He cleared his throat and said self-consciously, ‘Just for the record, I would usually try to – draw it out a bit more than that. Take more time about – things.’

She huffed a laugh against his chest, and he tried hard to commit the sensation of her breath against his bare skin to memory. ‘I’m sure, but on this occasion, I’m _really_ glad you didn’t.’ Then she added, softly, ‘Another time. When – when we’re finished here.’

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak. The clock was ticking away at his side.

She said lightly, ‘Well the next time I’m trapped on a mothership, I can die happy.’

He stared down at her in disbelief. ‘Carter, _what_ \- Do not even _joke_ – ‘

She smiled at his serious face, ‘I know, I’m sorry. But just so you know, if we never – if there’s never another chance – this was perfect.’

He stared down at her. God, she was _everything_. How had he ever thought she wasn’t? He brushed away a lock of hair that had fallen over her eyes. ‘You deserve so much better, Sam. I’d give you – anything, God, everything, if I could.’

She stared at him for a moment, eyes wide, then leaned forward again, to kiss him once more. In the moment before their lips met, he felt the shimmer of the time loop beginning again, then he was sitting on the edge of his bed, and she was standing at the door, facing away from him.

Slowly, slowly she turned, and her expression was desolate. He gritted his teeth and gripped the mattress to stop himself leaping up and taking her in his arms.

She said, ‘We shouldn’t ever talk about this again. We have to live _this_ loop.’

‘I know.’

She said sadly, ‘I made it harder, didn’t I?

He smiled at her, and it was only a little sad. ‘It was always hard, Carter.’

She nodded, and turned away, gripping the door handle.

He said, ‘I’ll never regret it.’

She opened the door, and turned back. ‘Me neither.’

She stepped thought the door, then added, as a marine passed behind her, ‘Goodnight, sir.’

As the door closed, he murmured, ‘Goodnight. Sam.’


End file.
